Claudia Roden, who grew up in Egypt, is a pioneering cookery writer with a special interest in the social, historical and cultural background of food. The publication of her A Book Of Middle Eastern Food in 1968 is said to have revolutionised Western attitudes to the cuisines of the Middle East and North Africa. Her other books include Claudia Roden’s Mediterranean Cookery; Arabesque: A Taste Of Morocco, Turkey And Lebanon; The Book Of Jewish Food; The Food Of Spain; and The Food Of Italy: Region By Region. She is an honorary fellow at SOAS and University College London and president of the Oxford Symposium Of Food And Cookery. Interviewer: Boyd Tonkin Boyd Tonkin is an experienced journalist who has written extensively for The Independent and The New Statesman. He has broadcast for BBC arts and current affairs programmes and been on the judging panel for the Booker Prize, the Whitbread biography award and the Commonwealth Writers Prize. This year, he is chairing the judging panel for the Man Booker International Prize. Ticket price includes talk, glass of wine and food tasters from a selection of Borough Market traders. The event will be recorded and photographed, and by buying a ticket you consent to the filming and recording of yourself as a member of the audience. Borough Market reserve the right to refuse admission. Event starts promptly at 7pm.